Hartford Business Journal

16 Hartford Business Journal | February 22, 2021 | HartfordBusiness.com Positive Charge Bullish homegrown electric vehicle charger manufacturers could see major growth from CT policy shift By Matt Pilon mpilon@hartfordbusiness.com T wo years after acquiring Greater Hartford-based electric vehicle charger manufacturer and distributor JuiceBar, Paul Vosper is preparing his company for a major ramp up. JuiceBar — formerly based in Hartford but with present-day operations in East Hartford and Norwalk — plans to approximately double its 21-person staff in the year ahead. Its contract manufacturing provider in Oxford will also likely double its 20-person workforce. "Our aspiration is to be the largest charging company in the country," said Vosper, who was in the finance industry before his 2018 purchase of JuiceBar. "That mantle is up for grabs." Officials at Enfield-based EVSE LLC, a fellow homegrown electric vehicle charger maker, are feeling the same enthusiasm. Daniel Shanahan, EVSE's director of sales and marketing, said the company's charger sales pipeline has seen solid growth in recent months, and it also anticipates more hiring in the near future. "Adoption [of electric vehicles] momentum is accelerating," said Shanahan, whose company is a subsidiary of Control Module Inc., an Enfield-based designer and manufacturer of smart EV chargers and other technology that has about 60 employees. "Critical mass is happening." Part of the reason the two Greater Hartford companies have bullish outlooks is because of the recent EV commitments made by major car manufacturers, including General Motors, which in January became the first major U.S. automaker to pledge to phase out internal combustion model vehicles by 2035. President Joe Biden's initiative to install 500,000 EV chargers across the country this decade, and hopes that he will lift caps on federal tax credits for EV purchases, are also spurring excitement. Amid those broader developments, there's a potential sea change in Connecticut's EV and charging policies. While the state has mostly not been a standout when it comes to EV adoption, there are significant policy changes converging right now that environmental advocates hope will shift into high gear a long-envisioned transition from fossil fuel vehicles to EVs. "When you look out the front windshield, there's a lot ahead when it comes to electric vehicles," said Katie Dykes, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). Among the most significant is Gov. Ned Lamont's support of Connecticut joining the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), a cap-and- invest program that would auction pollution allowances to fuel producers, raising an estimated $80 million per year that the state would use for public transit and EV infrastructure. TCI, to which several other governors have also committed, is expected to result in price increases at the pump for motorists. While lawmakers consider Lamont's TCI proposal, the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) is weighing potentially generous industry incentives, which could result in EV charger purchase and installation rebates of up to $2,500 for homeowners and $40,000 per apartment community. If approved, the so-called "make ready" program would be run by utilities Eversource and United Illuminating, which would recover the costs from Connecticut ratepayers in future electricity bills. Such incentives would bring Connecticut up to speed with California, Massachusetts and some other leading EV states. "I think that's one of the bright VW settlement funding shifts to electric vehicle charging stations By Matt Pilon mpilon@hartfordbusiness.com T here are several initiatives underway to increase funding for the state's electric vehicle infrastructure, but one of the most immediate will be coming from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). The funding round, which could exceed $18 million, will come from the state's nearly $56 million share of a 2016 nationwide legal settlement with Volkswagen over the German car maker's vehicle emissions cheating scandal. Much of the pending money is slated for EV charging infrastructure, which is a shift from the first two rounds of VW-settlement funding in 2018 and 2019, when money largely went to replacing diesel vehicles with cleaner technologies. Installing more chargers is seen as crucial for Connecticut to meet its aggressive EV adoption goals, because it helps alleviate "range anxiety" felt by drivers worried they'll run out of power on the road. Besides public charging stations, major increases in home and workplace chargers are also needed in the state, according to DEEP's "Electric Vehicle Roadmap" published last year. "To date, private investment in [electric vehicle supply equipment] deployment has not scaled at the pace necessary to meet Connecticut's [EV adoption] target," the roadmap states. "As such, some public funding will be necessary… ." Connecticut currently has 1,118 EV charging ports installed across 426 publicly available charging stations, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Public charging ports will need to roughly double by 2025 and quadruple by 2030 if Connecticut is going to hit its goal of having 500,000 registered EVs — which would represent 20% of all light duty vehicle registrations — on the road, the state says. Bryan Garcia Barry Kresch Year 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 No. registered 4,636 6,264 9,289 11,677 13,800 Electric vehicle registrations in CT Source: EVClubCT.com analysis of DMV data spots in Connecticut," Barry Kresch, president of the Electric Vehicle Club of Connecticut, said of the proposed charging incentives. "It's going to lower the total cost of ownership to have an electric vehicle." Kresch has been a critic of Connecticut's EV purchase rebate program, known as CHEAPR, which has excluded pricier electric vehicle models, including some made by market share leader Tesla. Kresch said that policy decision is hurting Connecticut's chances at reaching its EV and environmental targets. "The only state where we could be considered comparably impressive against is a state without any incentives at all," Kresch said. CHEAPR rebate volume plummeted in 2020, even though electric vehicle registrations in the state climbed 18%. Paul Vosper, president and CEO of electric vehicle charger maker JuiceBar, is bullish on the East Hartford/Norwalk company's prospects, thanks in part to recently proposed incentives in Connecticut. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER

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